Best broadband deals: Virgin Media Cable

More survey respondents (23 percent) told us they use Virgin Media’s cable-broadband service than that of any other provider.

As a quad-play operator offering a combination of broadband, home phone, mobile phone and digital TV services, it was little surprise to find significant sums being paid to Virgin Media each month. Almost 35 percent of customers are spending more than £50 each month to Virgin for their combined services, with as many again paying between £30 and £49 a month.

Most Virgin Media cable-broadband customers also get their phoneline from the company (70 percent explicitly said this was the case). In fact, taking a Virgin Media landline service is often a prerequisite. Discounted connections for Virgin Mobile customers were another a popular combination – just under 21 percent said they took advantage of this deal.

Despite its recent marketing, most customers are long-standing users, with more than half having been with the cable provider for at least five years and most other customers approaching that.

Far faster connection speeds are offered by cable than ADSL providers can supply, with Virgin Media forging ahead with up to 60Mbps connections for customers already on its 20Mbps service. More than 43 percent of Virgin Media customers who completed our survey said they have the 20Mbps or faster services; as a non-contended connection, most people said they usually get the advertised speed. A modest 9.4 percent said their connection speed was much slower than expected. The overall satisfaction figures of 96 percent were largely down to the impressive connection speeds that were acknowledged by 94.6 percent of customers.

However, late 2011 and early 2012 saw many reports of customers experiencing frequent connection issues. Consequently, it wasn’t much surprise to find comments along the lines of “I had frequent unexplained dropouts that took ages to be resolved.” On the whole, feedback on the reliability of Virgin Media’s cable service was very good, but many readers felt improvements were needed to the call-centre service. Lengthy waiting times and a lack of technical knowledge were common complaints. Customer service thus got a poor report, with an 85.5 percent satisfaction rating.

Virgin Media is highly praised for its unbeaten connection speeds and, in areas where it’s available, the cable service is clearly the best choice for heavy downloaders and frequent web users. There’s room for improvement in customer services, though.

Just under 80 percent of Virgin cable customers answering our survey said they were Windows and Linux users, with 12 percent using a Mac, and 10 percent describing their home setup as being a mixed PC and Mac environment. Two or three PCs and laptops are the norm.

Best broadband deals: Zen – BEST ISP

Zen isn’t the cheapest ADSL broadband provider, but it has always polled well in our broadband survey for customer satisfaction and good technical support. As you’ll see from the Best ISP shield adorning this write-up, Zen continues to impress.

Most Zen users take the broadband-only package with unlimited downloads (although several survey respondents were unaware of the limit). Zen also offers a fibre-optic broadband product, but we’ve received feedback from very few customers so far. Depending on the package chosen, you can subscribe to a rolling monthly contract, rather than tie yourself in for a minimum term. Most customers pay around £20 a month for a broadband-only service, and a higher proportion of Mac users than average list Zen as their ISP.

Customers have typically been with Zen for at least three years (32.7 percent have used Zen for between three and five years), with another 32 percent having at least a five-year relationship with it.

The feedback figures for Zen are nothing short of admirable. A little under 60 percent of customers said they wouldn’t consider trading their ISP for another, no matter what.

UK call centres and approachable technical support teams make the difference, it seems. “Brilliant ISP. Worth paying a little extra for the reliable, trouble-free service and friendly technical support” summarised how customers feel about our ISP of the year.

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Verizon FiOS promo code said: This is my main thing too Sure if you have an off e-mail address like gmail or hotmail or something like that then you can keep it but my main email address has been the same for close to 10 years If I change ISP then I lose my email address that I have had for yearsJack

Matt Egan said: We surveyed more than 6000 broadband users and thats what they told us

Kevin Robinson said: How can BT possibly be awarded BEST SUPER-FAST BROADBAND

Anonymous said: Perhaps not - Im not certain - but Id be surprised if for example an talktalkcom email address would remain available even after switching from TalkTalk to another provider Im planning on switching anytime now and its been a real chore trying to redirect all my email to a 3rd party address that isnt linked to an ISP I will NEVER actively use an ISP email address again

Suitcase Reviews said: Great deals thanks

Matt Egan said: I dont think you do have to lose your email address do you Im sure you can still use it via a web mail interface

Johnyboy said: Yes broadband must be a right when the HMRC are rapidly insisting that ALL information they require both business and personal is delivered and received on-line

Ecclebrick said: Thats why I changed to Google and Yahoo your email always available and not tied to an ISP

Maccyroo said: My God Orange must be running a mega shoddy network if even more of their customers were dissatisfiedwith their speeds then evenTalkTalkI had a decent 5MBps speed for over five years with Tiscali with my up to 8MBps package A month after TalkTalk took over it was down to 35MBps and a year later well under 3MBPs Their support is use the term loosely said my line only supported 3MBPsI moved to Virgin where I get my full 10Mbps nearly 247 as far as Im concerned And in October I get a free upgrade to 20MbpsI feel sorry for those not able to access any fibre-optic or cable services ADSL really sucks in my experience

Allen Page said: The main thing preventing me frem moving to another ISP is that I would loose my current email address I think Offcom should regulate that an email address should be as portable a a phone number You dont need to change your phone number when chaging phone service supplier so why do you have to change your email address when moving ISP

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